Whenever I open docs since upgrading to v3, they always come up read-only, and it forces me to save with another name. This is a real nuisance. It's not a permissions issue, as the docs are set to me username, read-write.

Can you give more details? Operating system for instance? This doesn't happen to me.
I've seen a lot of questions about docs opening read-only, and it's nearly always because people open them directly from an e-mail attachment, which is stored in a temporary file. So, are you saving your files in a regular folder?_________________LibreOffice 3.6.3; OOo 3.4.1 on Windows Vista
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You use the version that comes with Ubuntu? It's different from the one directly from Sun._________________LibreOffice 3.6.3; OOo 3.4.1 on Windows Vista
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So it might be the Debian version. And I understand that OOo 3.1 has some problems with odt files made with earlier versions of OOo._________________LibreOffice 3.6.3; OOo 3.4.1 on Windows Vista
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I've just renamed a good v3 file and tried to open the new name with v3, and it came up read-only! I hit the Edit button and it came up as Unnamed, so it forced me to save it to itself so I could work.

It's as if OO has to have some kind of internal record of a file, or else it comes up read-only.

Maybe you should reset your OOo profile. The new forum (see my sig) has a tutorial about that, if I remember correctly._________________LibreOffice 3.6.3; OOo 3.4.1 on Windows Vista
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No dice. I renamed /home/bill/.openoffice.org/3/user to user.old and reopened an odt, but read-only.

This read-only thing is not only a nuisance, but it is dangerous as I must edit then save the file to its original name. If I ever make a mistake and click the wrong thing to save as... I've completely lost that whole file forever. Very hazardous and disturbing.

I don't know what to do.

If the lockfiles are those hidden files that come up when I edit, they do go away when I close a file. However when I reboot it seems that OO does not close cleanly as I always have to 'recover' the files when I go to edit.

You say this is a version of Debian for testing; surely you don't put your precious stuff on that? OOo releases developer snapshots for testing but warns not to use them for work. Shouldn't you just use a stable version?_________________LibreOffice 3.6.3; OOo 3.4.1 on Windows Vista
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I'm not a Linux man, maybe you should try in the new forum (see my sig) and refer to this thread so you won't have to repeat all the details. A lot of the expert users have gone there and hardly come here any more. Sorry I can't help you any better._________________LibreOffice 3.6.3; OOo 3.4.1 on Windows Vista
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